Junip, José González' iterant full-band project, will release the new EP "Rope & summit" in May and are now offering the title track as a free download: http://www.junip.net/
/ will be handling things at home, will take care of them in the US. There will also be a new full-length coming later this year.
Here's the playlist for this week's radio show Sirius XMU:
01. Masshysteri - Dom kan inte höra musiken
02. TALK 1
03. David Sandström Overdrive - How the story feels
04. Ludwig Bell - Jag är en idiot
05. Faster Katt - Strange candy
06. TALK 2
07. Zombiekrig - Döden
08. Vorum - Eyes burning red
09. Okkultokrati - No light for mass
10. TALK 3
11. Björn Kleinhenz - Dackes drabanter
12. The Je Ne Sais Quoi - Transparent for you all
13. EL-SD - Sösjö
14. Robert Svensson - Beat
15. TALK 4
16. The Aches - Something to die for
17. Meleeh - Trauma
18. Grande Roses - Hell's own trial
19. Underachiever - Keep an eye
20. TALK 5
Reminder: my show airs every week on Sundays and Mondays at 11pm ET on Sirius XMU. That's channel 26 on Sirius, 43 on XM and 831 for DirecTV subscribers.
Junip, José González' full band project, will be touring this summer:
05/28 - Primavera Sound Festival, Barcelona (ESP)
06/08 - Great Scott, Boston, MA
06/09 - Knitting Factory, Brooklyn, NY
06/10 - Bowery Ballroom, New York, NY
06/12 - Turner Hall, Milwaukee, WI
06/13 - Lincoln Hall, Chicago, IL
06/16 - Eagle Rock Arts Center, Los Angeles, CA
06/18 - Rickshaw Stop, San Francisco, CA
06/19 - Vera Project, Seattle, WA
07/21 - De Affaire Festival, Nijmgen (NL)
07/23 - Boomtown Festival, Gent (BEL)
08/12 - Haldern Pop Festival, Rees-Haldern am Niederrhein (GER)
08/12 - Way Out West Festival, Gothenburg (SWE)
08/15 - Summer Sundae Festival, Leicester (UK)
It too me an embarrassingly long amount of time to figure out that Makthaverskan were singing the title of the song as the chorus with a soft Swedish 'G', but I suppose that's all a matter of expectations and perspective. It's still a good song regardless, as I tend to find those sorts of naive foibles more endearing than not. Likewise, it also reinforces how close they are to early Broder Daniel, back when BD were anxious misfit teens as opposed to the elegant misanthropes they eventually grew into. Not that I expect or even desire a similar evolution for Makthaverskan; I'm fine with the status quo teen angst they've got going right now.
Makthaverskan - German boy
The Jakarta Post interviews Jens Lekman: http://www.thejakartapost.com/news/2010/04/11/in-1990s-swedish-indie-scene-had-a-low-self-esteem039.html
PopMatters reviews the new album from The Tallest Man on Earth: http://www.popmatters.com/pm/review/123764-the-tallest-man-on-earth-the-wild-hunt/
This week's top 20 Swedish album chart:
01. Rolandz - Jajamen
02. Mikael Wiehe - Ta det tillbaka!
03. Salem al Fakir - Ignore this
04. The Playtones - Rock'n roll dance party
05. Cookies n Beans - Beg, borrow and steal
06. Di Leva - Lovestar
07. Petter - En räddare i nöden
08. Melissa Horn - Säg ingenting till mig
09. Timo Räisänen - The anatomy of Timo Räisänen
10. Amanda Jenssen - Happyland
11. Totta Näslund - Totta's basement tapes
12. Björn Skifs - Da capo
13. Kent - Röd
14. Teddybears - Devil's music
15. Sophie Zelmani - I'm the rain
16. Rigmor Gustafsson & Radio String Quartet Vienna - Calling you
17. Svenne Hedlund - Sings Elvis in Memphis
18. Perikles - Var ska vi sova inatt - en samling
19. Erik Grönwall - Erik Grönwall
20. Magnus Lindberg + Basse Wickman - Vita lögner + svarta ballader volym 1
AerialThere are few opening tracks that spark so perfectly to life, coloring not only the album to follow, but drawing the listener into this creative work, as the aptly titled "First of all...". While the following track does dampen the energy momentarily, from that point on "Put it this way in headlines" unravels as an impressive addition to Aerial's catalogue. The heavier, Mogwai/Mono-inspired post-rock of "The sentinel" has been replaced by a much cleaner, almost pop-like approach -- imagine a strange amalgamation of The End Will Be Kicks and Yamon Yamon. The only serious failing of "Headlines" is that the band, after embracing a change to their sound, sometimes takes too long to hit all the right notes, and then doesn't hit those notes quite hard enough. "Zebra" should have been anthemic, but only briefly reaches that point in the closing minute of the song; it's still a damn fine track, I am just not sure why the building energy suddenly stops. A few more songs like "Vacant dreamers", a track that blurs the line between post-rock and angular garage rock, might have helped as well, though said track suffers in a similar way to "Zebra": these songs seem to be building somewhere, but they never get there; this was never a problem on "The sentinel". That said, with "Guitar ode to a sunny afternoon" and all the other gorgeous moments on the album, there is more than enough to "Headlines" to make Aerial's present and future look quite bright.
- Lars Garvey Laing-Peterson
The Janitors posit themselves to be the 2nd coming of Silverbullit. They are not; they are, at best, yet another in a long line of mediocre Jesus and Mary Chain rips. I doubt I'd be so down on them if they didn't have such outlandish delusions of grandeur, but they should know better than to claim to be as good as one of Sweden's absolute best bands. Compare their song "Run" with Silverbullit's and it's no contest.
The Janitors - Run
PopMatters reviews the US release of Kongh's "Shadows of the shapeless": http://www.popmatters.com/pm/review/123429-kongh-shadows-of-the-shapeless/
Apparently Swedish bank Nordea has launched a music service called "Check-in music" together with : http://www.checkinmusic.se/
Aftonbladet has the video for The Ark's new single "Superstar": http://www.aftonbladet.se/webbtv/noje/musikvideor/article6958030.ab
Seems pretty dark for such a colorful band, although the song is pretty dece.
is giving away The Tarantula Waltz's new single "Synthetic sun", a duet with Ebba Forsberg: http://www.brusoknaster.se/showartists.php?artist_id=1
Pitchfork gives high marks to The Tallest Man on Earth's new album "The wild hunt", bestowing upon it their much-desired "best new music" tag: http://pitchfork.com/reviews/albums/14110-the-wild-hunt/
Danish act Tung_Nem (ex-Ruined By Martin) is giving away their track "Leap of faith" as a free download: http://boxstr.net/files/6442508_txsgp/Leap%20of%20Faith%20MP3%20new%20edit.mp3
